Other films that inspired Metal Gear-Part one

Like I’ve done with the James Bond and Metal Gear comparisons, I’ve tried to note some interesting parallels between the series, as well as more direct influences (especially with James Bond) Hideo Kojima is, of course, a big movie buff, and friends with directors such as JJ Abrams and Guillermo Del Toro (On who he collaborated with on the canceled Silent Hills, and now on his current project, “Death Stranding”.

The names of the Emmerich family-Huey Emmerich, Dr.Strangelove, and Hal “Otacon” Emmerich-are all references to films from the 60’s and 70’s.

Huey-who debuts in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (although he’s referred to in Solid II and III) is a reference to the damaged robot from “Silent Running”.

Also, Huey’s haggard appearance, at least in “The Phantom Pain” (although motion-captured in part from his American voice actor, Christopher Randolph) and highly questionable morality are a bit similar to Bruce Dern’s character Freeman Lowell.

Dr. Strangelove of course is from the movie of the same name, and she does have a physical resemblance to the Peter Sellers character, complete with sunglasses and suit.

Lastly, we have Hal “Otacon” Emmerich, who first meets Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid I. and is named after the intelligent computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

This is also reflected by the real name of Solid Snake, “David”, after David Bowman, the astronaught who has to deal with the psychotic computer on-board his spaceship.

Of course, Big Boss and Solid Snake had to deal with some villainous AIs of their own, including the Peace Walker AI, one patterned after his mentor the Boss, and Solid Snake later on with the Patriots AI system. Like the computer Hal, the Peace Walker AI units have a red-light “eye”

As for the last name, Emmerich, it’s based mainly on film director Roland Emmerich,  who director Stargate, Independence Day (as well as it’s sequel), 10,000 BC and the disaster films, Day After Tomorrow and 2012.

Although not in particular from any movie,The term “Otacon” is short for Otaku Convention, a reference to anime fans and a convention. Part of the reason Huey works on the Metal Gear series pioneered by his parents is his love of giant robot mecha from anime.

In fact, one of his early lines in the series-upon seeing the cyborg ninja:

Metal Gear/Star Wars comparisons addendum-Send in the clones

I’ve overlooked perhaps the most glaring similarity between Metal Gear and Star Wars.

Clones.

Spoilers for both the Metal Gear games, and the Star Wars films follow.

Clones sort of go back to the beginning of Star Wars lore, with Luke Skywalker mentioning the Clone Wars, a vague war that Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan fought in. Those wars-and what the clones were-were not elaborated on until Attack of the Clones, which revealed that a clone army of soldiers had been bred in secret from a bounty hunter-Jango Fett. Although believed to be created to help the Republic fight the separatists, they also serve as a way for Palpatine to eliminate the Jedi, and become the foundation of the Empire’s stormtroopers.

 

In Metal Gear, we have the original Snake/Big Boss, who joins the Patriots organization for a brief time, but when he starts to distance himself from the group, he is cloned without consent into three males-David (Solid Snake), Eli (Liquid Snake), and George (Solidus Snake) by Zero and Dr. Clark, his former friends from Operation Snake Eater. This causes Big Boss to leave the organization entirely, and doesn’t feel that the Clones are his sons, or him in anyway (Although he eventually does meet and help to train one of the clones, Solid Snake).

 

  

Like Zero, the guy kind of behind it all (although with better intentions), the cloning program in Star Wars is also of course created by the guy behind it all-Chancellor Palpatine, AKA the Sith Lord Darth Sidious.

 

Jango also has an unaltered clone that he treats as a son-and unlike Big Boss, actually has a good relationship with. This is, of course, Boba Fett, the bounty hunter who helps Darth Vader capture Han Solo, Leia, Chewbacca and Threepio in The Empire Strikes Back, and who is later seen alongside Jabba in Return of the Jedi, where he meets his untimely end in the mouth of the Sarlacc monster (Although the non-now canon Expanded Universe stuff had him survive that and live on as a frequent thorn in the side for Han Solo). He also wears armor that’s pretty much based after his “Dad”

 

 

 Solid Snake, likewise, is visually the most similar of the Clones to a younger Big Boss-having a somewhat mercenary lifestyle, messy hair and a bandanna, although Snake benefits from more advanced technology than his father-and he also has both his eyes intact, whereas Big Boss is forced to wear one when it gets badly grazed by a bullet during Operation Snake Eater. His relationship with Big Boss is a bit complicated-he’s initially trained as a FOXHOUND operative by him, but once his duplicity as Outer Heaven’s leader is revealed (although the man Snake faces in Outer Heaven is in fact his body double, Venom Snake), the two become enemies, until making peace towards the end of Big Boss’s life, where he explains how everything went south.

 

Jango of course dies because his head gets cut off by Mace Windu, leaving Boba to take up his place.

As for the relationship with his ‘brothers’, things are also a bit complicated. Boba of course, has a lot more ‘brothers’ than Solid Snake has, although technically he’s a bit different because he has no growth acceleration or other genetic manipulations that the others do. He seems rather indifferent to them in the “Clone Wars” series, as his real goal is revenge on Mace Windu.

 

Solid Snake faces his two brothers, Liquid and Solidus, in the first two games in the “Solid” series (Ocelot also pretends to be possessed by Liquid in both II and IV). Like Boba, he’s not 100% identical to them-although they look like each other somewhat, Snake is encoded with ‘recessive’ genes, while Liquid is given the ‘dominant ones’, while Solidus is pretty much a balanced clone, and the closest in DNA to Big Boss. He’s even got an eyepatch, although on the other eye.

In a way, Big Boss sort of has a “Clone Army” of his own, although not quite in the same way that Jango does. Several of the soldiers in Liquid Snake’s army are “Genome soldiers”, who have been injected with Big Boss’s genes, although not of course identical to the man himself. Like the clones, they have been partially conditioned to obey orders by Psycho Mantis, Liquid’s right-hand-man and psychic.

 

 

It’s worth noting that Boba also has a bit of a grind to pick with Mace Windu, as detailed in the second season of Clone Wars, for killing his father.

 

 

Liquid likewise, has an axe to grind with not only Solid Snake, but isn’t exactly pleased with Big Boss either-especially when he meets the man who he believes is his father, Venom Snake. Despite Snake’s attempts to befriend him, or put him to work on Mother Base, Liquid is defiant and eventually escapes with a Metal Gear (Although the fate of the gear was left out of the finished game).

 

 

It’s worth noting that clone-wise, the Clones in Star Wars are made in a lab environment on the planet Kamino and apart from the modifications they are identical to Jango.

whereas Solid and Liquid were born naturally. Although the mitochondrial DNA was provided by a unnamed Japanese woman-making her technically their biological mother (This doesn’t seem to be the case for Solidus for some reason). 

Although they are carried by Big Boss’s lover, Eva (Despite Big Boss not knowing of the cloning, she is willing to carry them, and considers them her sons) as a surrogate, although they are later raised by Patriots/CIPHER handlers (Although Liquid eventually escapes this). Although Solid Snake is unaware of this connection until he meets her, forty years later, in Metal Gear Solid IV, where she’s leading a movement under the code name “Big Mama”.

 

 

Metal Gear and Star Wars finale-Solid Sons

Years pass in both franchises. Big Boss-along with Venom Snake, his double-establish the nation-based Outer Heaven, and work to reinforce it with a powerful deterrent-The Metal Gear TX-55. Big Boss also moonlights as the commander of special group FOXHOUND, keeping his mercenaries activities and nation-building secret.

Palpatine’s Empire dominates the Star Wars galaxy for two decades, but cracks begin to grow-the rebellion, although Palpatine means to quell it with the Death Star’s completion.

And their progeny come of age-Luke, who in a series of events, becomes custodian of the Death Star plans hidden in droid R2-D2. He’s briefly mentored-and some of his true history revealed-by Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he has also befriends Han Solo, Chewbacca-and unbeknownst to him at the time-his twin sister, Leia Organa.

David, in the meanwhile (unaware of his parentage at this time), is trained by Big Boss and becomes “Solid Snake”. His twin brother, Eli, joins the SAS in Britain. Snake is further trained by Miller in survival techniques-although Miller only does so that Solid Snake can defeat Big Boss. Only Eli however is aware of his true legacy, and his brother’s career.

Both Luke and Snake are pretty much sent head first to his father’s legacy. Luke, of course, aims to become a Jedi like his father-but is unaware that his father went to the dark side, and became the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Vader kills Obi-Wan, further giving Luke reason to hate the villain. Snake becomes a mercenary agent/soldier much like his father.

Both destroy the main weapons that their father is involved in during their adventure. Vader, however, escapes the station’s destruction. Big Boss, likewise, survives the Outer Heaven incident (His double Venom Snake, however, is killed by Solid Snake), although he’s exposed as a traitor and forced to fake his death (using Venom) and flee.

Both father and son would have a real confrontation in the sequels, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, and METAL GEAR II: SOLID SNAKE.  However, the major plot of SOLID SNAKE more closely mirrors RETURN OF THE JEDI, as in both cases, the weapons are remade-In Star Wars, it’s the Death Star, now a much larger version under construction over the Endor moon. Big Boss creates a new Metal Gear, Metal Gear D, and uses it to fortify his new Outer Heaven, now located in Zanzibar land.

Both are considerably larger and more powerful than their predecessors.

However, it’s in EMPIRE that Luke confronts Darth Vader and learns that the dark lord is, in fact, his father-in disbelief. Solid Snake also learns that Big Boss is his father in Zanzibar land (Although this fact isn’t mentioned until the third game in the series, Metal Gear Solid).

Luke’s battle with Vader ends with a mutual failure. Luke is defeated, loses his arm and has this stunning revelation shocking him to the core, plus Han has been frozen and captured by the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Vader, however, is unable to deliver his son to the Emperor, as Luke is able to very narrowly escape.

Big Boss isn’t quite as lucky. His son defeats him-for real this time-leaving him badly burnt-and once again, in a coma (although Snake believes his father is dead).

Here Big Boss largely exits the story, but he’ll be back for one final scene later on. The rest of the saga is mainly driven by his other sons, Liquid and Solidus.

Liquid sort of wants to create a twisted version of his father’s legacy, driving the plot of the first Metal Gear Solid. He’s also somewhat petulant and whiny at times. In his case, he actually more closely resembles another Star Wars character, but one still related to Vader-Vader’s grandson through Leia, Kylo Ren (or Ben Solo) from The Force Awakens.

Both have  a snowy secret base:

and a variaton on the weapon on an earlier variation-Metal Gear (Through Metal Gear Rex) and the Death Star (Starkiller):

Between this and the Venom/Threepio arm, perhaps there actually is something here. Then there’s this:

Force Awakens director/writer J.J Abrams and Metal Gear director/writer Hideo Kojima. Hmmm…..

Anyway,It’s in the Solid series that although Big Boss’s story is more or less over, that we have interesting characters that sort of have some similarities to Star War’s other characters. Apart from Master Miller (sort of) and Campbell, a couple of new characters are introduced. Miller and Liquid sort of serve as one of the game’s biggest twist, as it’s revealed that Miller was recently killed, and Liquid has been assuming his identity to mislead Snake.

MGS sort of introduces the series’s ‘tough girl’ character, Meryl Silverburg (Campbell’s estranged daughter), who often gives men the orders, just like a certain princess:

Like Leia, she actually doesn’t settle with the main character, but instead one of the other guys, Han (For reasons that become very clear in “Return of the Jedi”-she’s Luke’s sister). It’s here also that Metal Gear sort of has the opposite of the Star Wars dynamic. Luke is portrayed, at least as first, as sort of very naive, although he grows in confidence and skill throughout the series. Solid Snake, like Han, sort of has a calm, cool, sort of ‘badass’ attitude from the beginning, although he eventually becomes a warmer, more emotional persona. So in a sense his characterization is more akin to Han Solo, and Snake’s supporting men, Otacon, Luke, and later Johnny (Who marries Meryl) are sort of like Luke-naive, more innocent, pawns of the villains etc.

Hal “Otacon”‘s Emmerich (Son of the treacherous Huey Emmerich, but a decent guy on his own) is sort of a brainy scientist who initially develops the Metal Gear REX, until he finds out what it’s being used for, and he becomes Snake’s best friend and tech support. His love interests also pretty much meet bad fates, although at the end he is able to raise an adopted Daughter. Raiden is a man who is manipulated by Zero’s Patriots, with his memories and perceptions tampered with, although he eventually becomes a cyborg ninja. Johnny, initially one of the bad guys-and notable for his frequent stomach and bowel problems, ends up a decent soldier and Meryl’s husband.

So what of Big Boss and Vader’s fates? Vader of course is finally shown the light by his son, who appeals to the good man hidden within him, causing him to finally turn back to the light when the Emperor tortures and prepares to kill Luke. He throws the Emperor down the Death Star’s reactor shaft, killing the man who started this whole mess.

In Big Boss’s case, the events of Metal Gear Solid IV, and the overthrow of the Patriot’s AI, awakens him from his coma, and he too ends the cycle of evil he and Zero were partially responsible for.

He does this by shutting down Zero’s life support, which has been keeping him alive since the 70’s.

The action proves fatal for both. The Emperor’s force lightning damages Vader’s suit and body, causing him to die in his son’s arms. However, he’s finally redeemed and able to become a “Force ghost”.

Big Boss in coming back to life, is exposed to “Foxdie”, a virus implanted in Solid Snake, that is used to target certain individuals-a last insurance from the patriots. Reconciling himself with his mistakes, and honoring his mentor the boss with one last salute, he also passes away, but with one last smile, and cigar shared with his son.

It’s here Solid Snake’s story pretty much also comes to an end. As a clone, he’s programmed with ‘terminator genes’ which cause him to age rapidly. However, he’s able to live his last few months in relative peace, compared to his constant battles, although his friend Raiden will have to face a few more battles due to events after the Patriots AI are defeated in the spin-off game, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

Luke however, ages naturally through 30 years. Unfortunately, things get a bit rough for him, as we learn in the Force Awakens, as his attempt to rebuild the Jedi order failed due to the actions of Kylo Ren and his mysterious dark side master, Snoke. His is a story that’s not yet finished. We’ll find out next year, perhaps, what the next step is in his journey.

Metal Gear and Star Wars Part IV-Phantom limbs

Warning: Some Spoilers for Metal Gear Solid V follow.

When we last left Anakin and Big Boss, they were gravely injured. Anakin, pretty much a burnt, one-armed torso due to the swordsmanship of his old friend and mentor,Obi-Wan Kenobi and the lava flows of Mustafar, after he betrayed and killed a large number of Jedi; and Big Boss, badly injured along with several of his allies, in a helicopter crash after his HQ Mother Base was destroyed, leaving his mercenary force, The Militaries San Frontieras, decimated. Anakin, in turn, has lost Padme and he presumes, his unborn child.

Anakin’s fall is more or less complete. Big Boss has still a bit left though.

Anakin is reconstructed by Palpatine into the Darth Vader we know, with his menacing black armor and deep, wheezing voice.

Big Boss, although badly injured, survives but in a coma. Kaz also survives and recovers more quickly. A medic also survives, with a similar fate.

Here things get a little tricky. Both Big Boss and the medic are in a coma for nine years. When Big Boss finally awakens, the medic awakens shortly thereafter. Zero,  feeling the world still needs Snake/Big Boss despite their differences-and to get back at the treacherous skull face-helps to create a “Phantom” Big Boss out of the medic-using hypnotism and plastic surgery to make him believe he’s Big Boss-to serve as a decoy/double for Snake, despite his injuries being far more severe (a lost arm and severe shrapnel embedded in his head). After a hospital escape aided by the real Big Boss, the fake Snake (codenamed Venom Snake) helps to rebuild the Outer Heaven mercenaries along with Kaz Miller, as “Diamond Dogs” and takes on Skull Face and his new Metal Gear, as well as exiling  the scientist Huey Emmerich, who helped betray MSF many years ago,  while the real Big Boss remains mostly hidden during these events, although he eventually returns to the states and finds FOXHOUND, a special operations organization which will eventually train Big Boss’s main clones-David “Solid” Snake and Eli “Liquid” Snake (The Phantom also comes across Eli in his adventures).

It’s also worth noting, although Big Boss does not received any more disfiguring injuries, Venom Snake eventually is giving a cybernetic arm, which along with his shrapnel horn and slightly more aloof persona, distinguishes him from the “real” Big Boss.

Although the Phantom Boss getting a replacement cyborg limb is similar to Darth Vader’s transformation from hero to Cyborg, it’s interesting to note the color and appearance is somewhat similar to the recent appearance of another Star Wars character, C-3PO.

The Phantom/Venom eventually discovers that he isn’t Big Boss, but despite this, begins working with his former commander and doppelganger to help build Outer Heaven, a new nation-based mercenary fortress where mercenaries will have a home, and also as a counter to Zero’s growing Patriots, who are gaining more power, even deprived of their leader.

Kaz also discovers the truth, and he’s not happy that he’s been misled, vowing to take down Big Boss by training Solid Snake, making him stronger to send his ‘father’ to hell.

Obi-Wan Kenobi likewise spirits Luke Skywalker, Anakin’s infant son-born after all along with Leia, his sister-to Tatooine, where he will quickly watch over him while he’s in the care of Anakin’s stepbrother Owen and his wife Beru.

 

Vader joins Palpatine as the Galactic Empire is established.

To reinforce Outer Heaven’s sovereignty, Big Boss figures he’s going to need a detterent. Like he did with Mother Base, he once again begins development on a new Metal Gear, the TX-55.

Likewise, Vader and the Emperor oversee the construction of the Death Star, a massive space station with the power to destroy a planet, and make the Empire’s rule over the galaxy even more ironclad.

Next: The Sins of the Father

Metal Gear and Star Wars Part III-They played us like a damn fiddle!

The events of Peace Walker and the Clone War eventually lead to some of the most tragic events in Metal Gear, and the further disfigurement and moral decay of the hero.

At the end of Peace Walker, first he is betrayed by Paz, who he assumed was an innocent believer in peace. She takes control of Big Boss’s Metal Gear ZEKE in order to try to frame MSF by launching a nuclear device; the event makes Big Boss more on guard, and willing to morally compromise on some of the contracts his soldiers will take in order for his dream of “Outer Heaven” to survive.

Palpatine meanwhile begins to twist Anakin Skywalker into distrusting the Jedi, and play on his fears about his nightmarish vision of his wife, Padme dying during childbirth.

Shortly thereafter, a carefully organized trap changes the direction of things. Palpatine orders the Clone troopers to kill their Jedi superiors, whereas Cipher-drawing Big Boss away on a rescue mission during an important “inspection” of his HQ Mother Base-attacks and destroys mother Base, killing most of the soldiers and some of Snake’s Peace Walker allies, including Paz.

It should be noted that unlike Palpatine, Major Zero is not directly responsible for what happens; in fact one of his subordinates-a disfigured commander known only as “Skull Face”-is behind it. Zero eventually slips into a coma for the next twenty years, although his organization lives on, both as Skull Face’s force of XOF and the AI and gene manipulations of his subordinates Dr. Clark and Donald Anderson. Although there still will be some Palpatine comparisons before the saga ends.

He’s somewhat closer to Palpatine in his evil, and of course Palpatine himself eventually carries the scars, when the Jedi figure what he’s up to and Mace Windu directs the lightning back at Palpatine, warping his skin into the twisted face we remember from Return of the Jedi.

The trap-his “Order 66”-eliminates the Jedi, and also has Obi-Wan away from Anakin at a critical time, allowing Palpatine to finally twist Anakin into Darth Vader, who participates in the order, taking out the Jedi’s temple. Anakin’s final look however have to wait.

Eventually of course, Anakin’s former mentor and friend, Obi-Wan, catches up to Anakin and during the duel on Mustafar, badly maims him and Anakin is further burnt up by the volcanic lava. Although He’s still alive.

As the attack on Mother Base ends with it sinking into the sea, it’s revealed that Paz-rescued from the site where Snake infiltrated, is booby trapped, and as she explodes, the helicopter is destroyed, with Big Boss, a medic, Kaz and Chico caught in the explosion.

Both fiery fates will bring us to the next chapter.

Metal Gear and Star Wars Part II: Clone War and Peace Walker

The deaths of their mother figures have now sent Big Boss and Anakin/Vader on their fateful path. However, both find themselves in new alliances and conflicts, and also leading armies-and in the grip of a man whose goal is power. The physical cost is also starting to mount for both. In Snake Eater, Big Boss has lost an eye, and also now wears a bandana in memory of his mentor. In the coming Clone conflict, Anakin will lose an arm, replacing it with a cybernetic one, and hence beginning the path before “becoming more machine than man”.

Patriots. Big Boss is on the far left, with Paramedic, Zero in the center, and Donald Anderson on the right.

Big Boss and his Snake Eater crew-eventually uncover the microfilm the Boss’s mission was meant to uncover, and use it re-form the Philosophers, as the “Patriots”. Their goal is to unite the world, to realize the dream of their fallen mentor and friend. However, this dream soon becomes a nightmare, as Zero-along with Dr. Clark (Para Medic) and Signit (Donald Anderson) begin to become more and more greedy and power hungry, ending up with them cloning Snake-now called “Big Boss” by some due to him defeating the Boss. This is so Big Boss can be a sort of rallying symbol for their organization-and should he leave, he will continue to be by way of his sons.”The Les Infant Terribles” are of course, created-the Sons of Big Boss.

This incident of course causes Snake, along with Ocelot and Eva, to leave the organization. However, Zero isn’t letting them go that easily….

Star Wars wise, as Anakin’s mother dies, things around the galaxy are in turmoil as there’s a complex plot afoot. The Jedi’s enemies, the Sith, have orchestrated a master plan a millennia in the making, putting Sith Lord Darth Sidious into total control of the galaxy (unbeknownst to the Jedi). As Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Sidious orchestrates conflict-first, the Naboo crisis in which we first meet Anakin, and on a much larger scale, the Clone Wars, with his Republic armed with Clone Soldiers against the Separatist-led Battle Droid armies, who wish to break away from the Republic and form their own independent confederacy. Of course he’s actually playing both sides to get further power for himself, eventually leading to the abolishment of both the Republic and the Separatists, and a new order in their place-The Galactic Empire.

The Clone Wars and Snake in the Peace Walker inciddent

Big Boss, likewise, finds himself leading the Militaries San Frontieras, or MSF, who are a mercenary force, or private army, who will work for certain causes. Like the Jedi and the Clones, they become part of a larger mission, one in which Zero is pretty much pulling the strings, like Palpatine-The Peace Walker incident, in which a nuclear-armed AI weapon-the Peace Walker-is involved, one which has an AI control that possesses a ‘brain’ based on the Boss.

Despite Peace Walker not really being the Boss physically, Big Boss is somewhat convinced it reflects his mentor’s spirit, and her choices. When the Walker submerges itself to prevent a nuclear launch, Big Boss now believes that the Boss “put down her gun”. However, instead of Big Boss doing the same, he’s so much into war and chaos now, that he finally accepts his Big Boss title for real, largely rejecting his former title of Snake. However his turn into darkness is not quite complete.

The Clone Wars in turn somewhat darken Anakin’s opinions about the Jedi, and he does make several questionable acts during the war itself.

In both cases, our hero/villains have a consciousnesses of sorts, a fellow hero who is holding them back. In Anakin’s case, it’s his secret wife Padme Amidalia, and his mentor and friend Obi-Wan Kenobi. In Metal Gear, it’s Snake’s second in command Kazuhira Miller, and other allies of MSF such as the optimistic teen Paz Ortega.

However, a series of coups, betrayals, death, lost limbs and scars will further warp these once legendary heroes into infamous villains, and turn friends into enemies.

Kazuhira Miller and Obi-Wan, kind of rocking the mullet.

And two ultimate weapons will emerge…one that gives the series it’s name, the other which keeps showing up in some form in the movies.

Metal Gear ZEKE and the Death Star.

But that’s for another article down the line…

Metal Gear and Star Wars Part I: Big Loss

The next series of articles will examine some similarities of these two franchises, starting with the formation of Big Boss and Darth Vader. Big Boss, the villain of the original MSX games (and their Nintendo ports) and Darth Vader, the villain of the Star Wars original trilogy. Both had their pasts revealed in prequel installments of the franchise.

   

On the surface, they couldn’t be more different. One is a movie series about a galaxy at war, with a group of warrior-monk protectors (The Jedi) and their mysterious powers (The Force) at the center of it. The other is a stealth gaming franchise-with themes such as nuclear deterrence, the price of war, information control, and genetic engineering. The action plays much differently too-Star Wars often has grand space and land battles between fleets and armies, while Metal Gear is often involved with stealth-avoiding detection by the enemy, and only using force when necessary.

However at their core they share similar themes. Both, for instance, take place over roughly seventy years of time-and both have a prequel component, with a man whose revered as a hero becoming a villain (of sorts), although with a partial redemption at the end. Both also involve their sons as the redeemer of the “Sins of the Father”.

INNOCENCE

When we “first” meet the two (In the Phantom Menace, and Metal Gear Solid III: Snake Eater), they’re sort of innocent compared to what they’ll eventually become. Anakin-although a slave-is living with his mother on Tatooine. John/Snake, although he’s been involved in a few conflicts already and has been trained by the Boss, is relatively naive, especially about the complex machinations driving his mission.

However, fate intervenes. Anakin is able to win his freedom in the pod race, and aid Qui-Gon Jinn and his friends-including his future wife-Padme Amidalia-in their mission. However, his freedom comes at a cost, as he can’t free his mother, and later Jedi rules, training, and business prevent him from coming back to visit her. Later, he loses his other parent figure and mentor (if only for a brief moment), Qui-Gon Jinn, to the twin blades of Darth Maul.

 

The Boss, in Metal Gear, is somewhat both mentor and mother figure to Snake (Not biologically, we never really hear much about Snake’s life prior to the mission or his family, apart from the fact that he believed in Santa Claus, and still does well into his 30’s).

Shmi of course dies from exhaustion and torture after capture from the Tusken Raiders/Sandpeople in Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which then starts to warp the formerly innocent Anakin (Although he’d already developed a temper and ego) into a murderous rage, that he later reveals to Padme. It also drives a lot of what happens in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, as Anakin frankly believes something similar will happen to Padme, and can’t bear to lose her-driving, at least in part, his betrayal of the Jedi and his transformation into Darth Vader.

Snake’s situation is somewhat different. It’s a part of his mission. Due to her actions joining the Rogue Russian colonel Volgin, Big Boss and his superiors are convinced the Boss has defected, and to prevent a war between the US and Russia (Since the Boss gave Volgin a  US nuclear missile as a token of trust, which he then uses on Russian soil), the Boss must be killed by Snake and take full blame for the incident.

Snake carries out his orders. Unfortunately, it’s later revealed that the Boss was in deep cover to steal a microfilm from Volgin, and had to take the fall for Volgin’s actions once he used the nuke, and was, in fact, loyal all along.

However, in both cases, the loss of the mother/mentor figure propels the characters going forward. Anakin with his motivation to somehow conquer death and prevent loss; and Big Boss to find a haven for mercenary soldiers. However, both would be further corrupted, especially by the events taking shape around them-and two alliances that would be very important-which would bear them a legacy of their own,but ultimately set them on their final path.